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OPENING  ADDRESS 
BEFORE  THE  INTER- 
NATIONAL CONVENTION 
FOR  THE  AMENDMENT 
OF  ENGLISH  ORTHO- 
GRAPHY 


••A/ 

TO 

28i 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


PROF.  MARCH'S  ADDRESS 


-BEFOHK  THE- 


j|  itfc!  n:.ilioii:i  i     (I  oim  i  iil'mn 


FOR  THE  AMENDMENT  OF 


ENGLISH    ORTHOGRAPHY. 


PHILADELPHIA.  AUGUST  15,  1876. 


- 


V     ' 


THE  OPENING  ADDRESS 


-bp:fokk- 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONVENTION 


FOR  THE    A.MKMIMENT   OF 


nmm  ^})r\mi\r:\y 


AT  PHILADELPHIA,   AUGUST  15th,    1876, 


-BV- 


:f:r,o^-  zfir^hstcis  ^.  nvn^iE^aiEi, 


OF  LAFAYETTE  COLLEGE,  EASTON,  PA. 


ztstotie. 

TX  this  address  a  is  printed  for  a  when  it  sounds  as  in  fast,  far ,  a  for 
*-  a  as  in  face,  j  for  i  as  in  fine,  o-  for  o  as  in  not,  nor,  n  for  u  as  in 
but,  burn.  \\  for  u  as  in  music,  use,  and,  beginning  on  page  11,  g  for  g 
iis  in  general,  and  a  for  s,  as  in  is. 


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Us 


THE  OPENING  ADDRESS 

BEFORE 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONVENTION, 

FOR 

THE  AMENDMENT  OF  ENGLISH  ORTHOGRAPHY. 


%^  ••»  ^» 


Scholars  spend  a  great  part  of  their  tjme  studying  old  books  and 
mo-miments.  They  are  apt  to  think  of  writing  as  a  record  merely. 
But  it  is  really  mighty  machinery  working  for  the  fqture,  the  agent  by 
which  each  generation  is  introduced  to  knowledge  and  culture.  Phi- 
lerlogy  prjdes  herself  en  her  conquest  of  the  past,  her  reconstruction  of 
history ;  but  she  should  aim  at  the  higher  praise  of  earnest  work  for 
the  future,  of  contributions  to  the  progress  of  the  race.  The  improve- 
ment of  the  reading  machinery  of  the  English  language,  the  reform  of 
English  spelling  is  a  great  work.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  welfare 
of  the  race  is  as  much  promoted  by  any  invention  of  the  century. 
whether  the  steam  engine  or  the  telegraph  contributes  as  much  to  the 
progress  of  the  people,  as  would  the  invention  and  introduction  of  a 
good  phonetic  system  of  spelling  our  language.  The  difference  between 
a  family  who  can  read  and  one  who  can  not.  is  vastly  more  important 
than  the  difference  between  a  family  that  uses  railroads  and  telegraphs 
and  one  that  does  nof. 

EVILS    OP   BAD   SPELLING. 

Our  wretched  spelling  hinders  our  people  from  becoming  readers 
in  two  ways,  by  the  length  of  tjme  which  it  takes  to  learn  it,  and  In 
the  disljke  of  reading  which  it  induces.  Three  years  are  spent  in  our 
primary  schools  in  learning  to  read  and  spell  a  little.  The  German 
advances  as  far  in  a  twelvemonth.  A  large  fraction  of  the  school  tjme 
of  the  millions  is  thus  stolen  from  useful  studies,  and  devoted  to  the 
most  painful  drudgery.  Millions  of  years  are  thus  lost  in  every  gener- 
ation. Then  it  affects  the  intellect  of  beginners.  The  chjld  should 
have  its  reason  awakened  by  order,  proportion,  fitness,  law  in  the 
objects  it  is  made  to  study.  But  wo  to  the  chjld  who  attempts  to  u*(> 
reason  in  spelling  English.  It  is  amark  of  promise  net  to  spell  easily. 
One  whose  reason  is  active  must  learn  net  to  use  it.  The  whole  pro- 
cess is  stupifying  and  perverting;  it  makes  great  numbers  of  children 

564564 

ue  sets 


finally  and  forever  hate  the  sight  of  a  book  and  reluct  from  all  learn- 
ing. There  are  reported  to  the  takers  of  our  last  census  5,500,000 
illiterates  in  the  United  States.  One  half  at  least  of  those  who  report 
themselves  able  to  read,  cannot  read  well  enough  to  get  much  good 
from  it.  It  may  be  held  certain  that  good  spelling  would  increase  by 
millions  the  number  of  easy  readers,  and  by  millions  more  the  number 
of  those  fond  of  knowledge.  But  moral  degeneracy  follows  the  want 
<>f  cultivated  intelligence.  Christianity  can  not  put  forth  half  her 
strength  where  she  can  not  i(se  her  presses.  Republics  fall  to  ruin 
when  the  people  become  bljnd  and  bad.  We  ought  then  to  try  to 
improve  our  spelling  from  patriotic  and  philanthropic  motives.  If 
these  do  not  move  us,  it  may  be  worth  whjle  to  remember  that  it  has 
been  competed  that  we  throw  away  $15,000,000  a  year  paying  teacher? 
for  addling  the  brains  of  our  children  with  bad  spelling,  and  at  least 
$100,000,000  more,  paying  printers  and  publishers  for  sprinkling  our 
books  and  papers  with  sjlent  letters. 

ORTHOGRAPHY  NOT  ORTHOEPY. 

We  are  met  to  reform  orthography,  not  orthoepy ;  we  have  to  do 
with  writing,  not  pronunciation.  There  are  all  sorts  of  English 
people,  and  words  ore  pronounced  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  It  is  the  work 
of  the  orthoepist  to  observe  all  these  different  ways,  and  to  decjde 
which  is  the  prevailing  pronunciation  of  the  most  cultured,  to  decjde 
which  is  the  standard  English  pronunciation.  The  orthographer  tells 
how  to  represent  this  pronunciation  in  writing.  The  orthoepist  has 
many  nice  and  difficult  questions  to  solve.  We  enter  into  his  labors. 
We  take  for  granted  that  there  is  a  standard  pronunciation  of  English. 
We  wish  to  see  it  represented  by  simple  and  reasonable  alphabetic* 
sjgns. 

AX    IDEAL    ALPHABET. 

The  essential  idea  of  an  alphabet  is  that  each  elementary  sound 
have  its  own  unvarying  sjgn,  and  each  sjgn  its  own  unvarying  sound. 
But  in  a  perfect  alphabet  the  characters  should  be  easy  to  write  and 
to  distinguish,  and  shapely;  similar  sounds  should  have  similar  signs, 
and  similar  series  of  sounds  should  have  series  of  sjgns  with  similar 
analogies  of  form ;  each  character  should  be  so  shaped  as  to  easily 
suggest  something  about  the  position  of  the  organs  of  speech  in  making 
it:  and  all  nations  should  use  the  same  characters  with  similar  valqes. 
Moreover,  derived  alphabets,  being  necesserilv  bearers  of  history, 
should  be  esteemed  better  as  they  incidentally  embody  more  important 
history.  The  perfect  alphabet  will  not  press  any  of  these  incidental 
qualities  so  far  as  to  interfere  with  the  essential  purpose  of  an  alpha- 
bet, the  easy  eomnnpiication  of  thought  by  signs  of  sound.  Standard 
alphabets  for  popular  use  should  have  signs  only  for  well  established 


significant  sounds.  The  vowel  sounds  shade  into  each  other  ljke 
colors.  The  consonants  are  made  in  many  ways.  Mr.  Ellis  had  signs 
for  some  300  letters,  years  ago.  Thousands  may  lie  distinguished,  and 
need  to  he.  for  the  purposes  of  comparative  phonology.  No  minute- 
ness conies  amiss  to  scjence.  Different  nations  make  different  qualities 
of  sound  significant.  Tones  make  letters  for  the  Chjnese.  Length 
was  o  greet  matter  with  the  early  Indo-Europeans.  in  the  Sanskrit  and 
Creek,  and  the  like.  We  have  come  to  qse  stress  for  the  old  pitch, 
and  neglect  the  measure  of  tune  :  we  mcke  letters  only  on  the  ground 
of  quality.  Many  trjbes  make  nothing  of  the  difference  between  surd 
and  sonant :  p  and  h  are  all  one  to  them :  both  are  made  with  the  lips. 
thay  say.  We  can  not  he  sqre  that  any  difference  is  so  slight  that  no 
nation  has  exalted,  or  may  exalt  it  to  significance.  But  the  general 
standard  of  a  great  nation  must  always  he  severely  simple.  It  is 
wholly  undesjrable  to  admit  in  it  the  ever  varying  gljdes  and  finishes 
and  coloring  of  fashionahle  or  vulgar  articulation,  or  even  the  more 
stable  and  general  colorings  produced  by  adjacent  letters,  as  long  as 
they  are  without  significance.  The  perfect  alphabet  will  not  record 
etymology  and  history  to  the  neglect  of  current  sounds. 

THE    REAL    ALPHABET. 

Xo  language  has  a  perfect  alphabet.  Alphabetic  writing  was  not 
invented  to  answer  to  an  ideal :  it  is  a  sort  of  growth,  or  development 
by  natural  selection ,  from  pietqre  writing,  and  ljke  other  things  that 
grow  in  mjnds  without  ideas,  it  needs  making  over  for  the  qse  of  man. 
Moreover,  living  speech  is  always  changing,  the  spoken  language 
always  running  away  from  the  written. 

CHANGES    IX   SPOKEN    LANGUAGE. 

Two  classes  of  changes  may  be  distinguished.  One  of  single 
wi  >rds.  The  letters  of  unaccented  syllables  are  carelessly  pronounced, 
and  often  drop  out,  and  bring  together  letters  which  ore  hard  to  pro- 
nounce together,  so  that  one  weakens,  is  assimilated,  or  silent.  Caro- 
lina tends  to  become  Carolina,  and  then  Culnia  and  Culiny  and 
Cljny.  In  most  languages  the  written  words  rapidly  adapt  themselves 
to  these  changes.  As  soon  as  scholars  all  stop  sounding  a  letter  in 
any  word,  they  stop  writing  it.  Such  changes  as  affect  one  word  at  o 
time  must  go  on  slowly,  and  the  written  and  spoken  speech  are  not 
drawn  far  apart.  The  other  is  a  general  change  in  some  elementary 
sound.  It  gets  to  be  the  fashion  to  utter  some  sound  in  a  slightly 
different  way  from  the  old  standard ;  a  vowel  is  made  closer  than  it 
qsed  to  be,  or  is  made  with  a  finish :  every  body  gets  to  saying  a  for  a 
(  past  for  past)  or  iu  for  u  (tiune  for  tune)  or  ei  for  a  (faite  for  fate.) 


The  change  goes  em  until  the  old  letter  is  merged  in  sound  into  some 
other  old  letter  or  letters,  or  till  a  new  letter  is  established  as  signifi- 
cant. Changes  of  this  class  often  go  far  without  affecting  the  written 
speech.  The  Greek  affords  many  familiar  examples.  Several  sets  erf 
such  changes  are  of  interest  in  English. 

1.  The  regular  assimilation  of  letters  connected  in  discourse,  by 
which  intermediate  letters  spring  up  between  the  old  ones.  Between 
a  {far)  and  e  [met)  a  as  in  fat,  fare,  has  now  become  established;  be- 
tween a  (far)  and  o  [no),  &  as  in  not  and  nor:  then  there  are  the 
neutral  vowels  erffon  and  bvrn.  Mqte  consonants  under  vowel  infiq- 
ence  change  to  continuous  err  spjrant  consonants,  as  ti  to  sh  in 
notion  :  and  surds  change  to  sonants,  as  si  to  zh  in  jAeasip-e.  Six 
vowels  and  four  eo-nsonants  unknown  to  the  earlv  Romans  have  arisen 
in  this  way. 

2.  Another  class  of  changes  is  connected  with  the  accent.  The 
close  vowels  i  and  u  lengthen  into  diphthongs  by  taking  before  them 
the  sound  of  a  {Jar).  The  long  I  (ai),  as  in  mine,  was  at  first  pro- 
nounced as  in  machine  :  the  on  (cm), as  in  house  (Anglo-Saxon  has),  was 
spelt  and  pronounced  l^ke  u  in  rude.  The  open  and  mixed  vowels 
have  become  closer,  a  {far)  going  to  e  {fate)  or  &  {wall),  e  {they)  going 
to  i  [machine,  me),o  going  to  u  {rule,  moon).  It  has  thus  come  about 
that  single  characters  stand  for  diphthongs,  and  that  the  short  and 
long  sounds  which  go  in  pairs  in  other  languages  are  denoted  by 
different  characters  in  ours,  and  are  derived  from  different  sources. 

:>.  These  pairs,  not  having  been  associated  together,  have  not 
grown  so  much  aljke  as  in  other  languages  :  the  e  of  met  is  different  in 
quality  frerm  its  long  as  heard  in  may,  the  i  of  ft  from  its  long  as 
heard  in  fee;  so  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  one  character  will  do  for 
both,  whether  we  must  not  have  different  characters  for  each  short 
and  long,  after  the  manner  of  old  time-observing  tongues. 

THE    AXGLO-SAXON    ALPHABET. 

Our  grandmother  tongue,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  had  a  pretty  good 
alphabet.  There  was  early  writing  in  runes,  but  the  Roman  mission- 
aries, who  converted  the  nation,  redqced  the  language  to  writing  in 
Roman  letters.  They  gave  them  the  power  which  they  then  had  in 
Latin,  using  c  always  ljke  k,  and  g  as  in  go.  For  sounds  which  did 
not  occur  in  Latin  they  preserved  runes,  or  qsed  digraphs  after  the 
manner  of  the  Celts.  Runes  were  qsed  for  t/t  and  w.  They  distin- 
guished a  in  far  from  a  in  hat,  using  ae,  ce  for  the  latter.  They  also 
distinguished  other  njce  varieties  of  vowel  shading  and  finish. 


THE    MODERN    ENGLISH. 

Our  woes  spring  from  the  Norman  conquest.  Anglo-Saxons  and 
Nermans  qnjted  to  make  the  English  nation,  and  the}-  threw  their 
languages  into  a  sort  of  hotchpotch.  Many  of  the  words  of  each  race 
were  hard  tor  the  other  to  pronounce.  Thay  were  spelt  hy  the  scholars 
to  whom  thay  were  native,  in  the  old  book  fashion,  but  the  people  did 
not  pronounce  them  correctly.  Many  letters  were  left  sjlent,  or 
inserted  to  no  purpose,  in  ill-directed  attempts  to  represent  the  strange 
combinations.  Then  the  great  shifting  already  described  took  place 
in  the  whole  gamut,  so  to  speak,  of  the  vowel  sounds.  People  hardly 
knew  what  was  the  matter  as  these  changes  went  on.  and  before  our 
scholars  waked  up,  the  whole  habit  of  wrjting  was  so  far  away  from  a 
phonetic  one,  that  people  ceased  to  feel  any  necessity  for  keeping 
sounds  and  signs  together,  and  the  scholars  gave  up.  We  attained  at 
lost  a  very  fair  approach  to  the  Chinese  idiographic  system.  The 
written  words  are  associated  with  thoughts  as  wholes,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  sounds  which  the  separate  letters  might  indicate.  Changes 
in  the  sounds  of  words  go  on  with  no  record  in  the  writing.  Ingenious 
etymologists  slip  in  new  sjlent  letters  as  records  of  history  drawn 
from  their  imagination.  Old  monsters,  fertile  in  the  popular  fancy, 
propagate  themselves  in  the  congenial  environment,  and  altogether 
we  have  attained  the  worst  spelling  on  the  planet.  And  we  have  been 
proud  of  it.  and  we  are  fond  of  it. 

WHAT    CAN    WE    DO? 

What  can  be  done  for  reform.  We  can  prodqce  dissatisfaction 
with  the  present  spelling.  That  is  easy.  We  can  teach  the  people 
what  spelling  ought  to  be.  That  is  harder.  We  can  harmonize  views 
as  to  the  changes  which  are  practicable,  and  the  methods  of  intro- 
ducing them.  And  then  we  can  qse  reformed  spelling,  and  get  others 
to  qse  it. 

PREPARATORY    WORK. 

Much  has  already  been  done  to  prepare  the  way.  Comparative 
philology  is  founded  on  phonetics,  and  no  scholar  ever  works  in  this 
field  without  lamenting  the  condition  of  the  English  language.  Most 
of  our  ablest  philologists  have  spoken  out  about  it.  Several  of  the 
most  eminent  have  published  vigorous  essays  of  demonstration,  objur- 
g  ition  and  appeal.  Our  venerable  chief,  the  Honorable  George  P. 
Marsh,  minister  of  the  United  States  at  Rome,  Prof.  Hadley.  the  presi- 
dents of  the  American  Philological  Association,  Whitney,  Trumbull. 
Haldeman,  stand  side  by  side  with  Prof.  Max  Miiller,  with  presi- 
dents of  the  London  Philological  Socjety,  with  Ellis,  with  Pitman.  Pell 
and  other  practical  workers,  and  with  all  scholars,  great  and  small,  of 
other  races. 


8 

The  growth  of  the  historical  study  of  the,  English  language  and 
literatqre  has  also  been  of  great  service.  It  has  made  it  necessary  to 
ascertain  the  pronunciation  of  the  language  at  different  epochs.  The 
difficulty  of  this  investigation,  and  the  singular  facts  which  are  un- 
earthed from  old  grammars  and  dictionaries,  err  made  out  by  induction 
from  the  poets,  or  reasonings  from  the  laws  of  letter  change,  surprise 
every  one.  The  huge  volqmes  in  which  Mr.  Ellis  has  collected  the 
materials  for  the  study  of  the  history  of  English  pronunciation  are  im- 
pressive witnesses  against  the  spelling  in  which  the  facts  were  buried. 
The  publications  of  the  Early  English  Text  Socjety,  which  reproduce 
the  spelling  of  the>  original  manx[scripts,  similar  publications  of  the 
Chaucer  Socjety,  reprints  of  the  first  folio  of  Shakespeare  and  of  the 
early  editions  of  Spenser,  make  every  one  familiar  with  many  ways  of 
spelling,  and  so  make  it  easy  to  read  in  any  spelling.  We  get  used  to 
seeing  the  same  word  spelt  half  a  dozen  ways  on  the  same  page,  and 
ore  not  easily  startled  by  the  most  ingenious  modern  professor  of 
phonetics.  Modern  writers  in  djalect  ljke  Burns  and  Scott,  and 
the  comic  caricaturists  of  fashionable  or  vulgar  slang,  Dickens,  Nasby, 
Josh  Hillings,  all  help.  We  make  the  wjdest  guesses  at  the  sound, 
which  they  mean  to  indicate,  we  read  our  Burns  in  Scottish  which  no 
Scot  ever  dreamed  of,  but  at  least  they  set  us  free  from  the  common 
spelling.  Our  common-school  teachers  have  been  powerful  aids  in 
producing  dissatisfaction  with  the  old  spelling,  especially  in  those 
parts  of  the  country  where  there  are  German  children  in  the  schools. 
German  parents  cannot  be  made  to  understand  why  their  children  are 
kept  in  spelling  books  four  or  fjve  years,  and  they  complain  bitterly 
abou^  it.  Our  Superintendents,  always  alert  and  ready  for  improve- 
ments of  every  kjnd,  have  been  long  in  earnest  to  fjnd  some  mode  of 
escape  from  the  spelling  plague.  Teachers  of  Latin  and  Greek,  and 
of  French,  German  and  other  modern  languages  help.  Teachers  of 
elocution  also  teach  s}rstems  of  vocal  sounds,  which  are  passed  along 
to  teachers  in  the  common-schools  and  kindergartens  who  train  (he 
children  in  reading.  Many  of  our  school  primers  and  readers  do  good 
work  by  trying  to  introduce  children  to  our  present  written  language 
through  a  phonetic  system.  Dr.  Leigh's  books  of  this  kjnd  are  used 
in  many  of  our  cities  from  New  York  to  St.  Louis,  if  not  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, as  they  might  well  be.  Many  persons  learn  phonetic  steno- 
graphy. There  are  a  large  number  of  teachers  of  it  and  periodicals 
published  in  its  interest.  Mr.  Pitman's  Phonetic  Journal  has  a  circu- 
lation of  ten  thousand  copies. 

Most  persons  forty  or  fifty  years  old  would  be  astonished  to  learn 
how  extensive  is  the  preparation  for  a  change  of  spelling  already 
made  in  the  younger  generation.  Add  foreigners  and  other  persons 
who  read  imperfectly  and  do  not  know  but  Josh  Billings  spells  as  well 


a*  any  body,  a  great  host,  and  it  would  seem  that  three  fourths  of  the 
persons  in  America  who  ore  counted  in  onr  census  as  able  to  read, 
could  read  with  little  new  embarrassment  a  reformed  spelling  having 
no  unkown  characters,  while  the  5,500,000  illiterates  might  be  taught 
it  in  half  the  tune  of  the  old  one. 

SCHEMES    OF    REFORM. 

The  remedy  for  single  words  which  have  old  sjlent  letters  stand- 
ing, or  blundering  spelling  of  their  own,  is  obvious,  if  not  easy.  Drop 
the  sjlent  letters.  Correct  the  blunders-  It  is  not  easy  to  apply  these 
obvious  directions,  because  our  spelling  is  so  complex  that  a  change 
can  seldom  be  made  without  starting  into  activity  some  minor  analogy 
which  stops  the  way.  Drop  the  sclent  e  of  ripe,  it  becomes  rip.  Drop 
one  of  the  ts  of  latter,  it  becomes  later.  Grief  has  a  sjlent  letter.  Is 
it  i  or  e  V  The  I  in  could  is  a  mere  blunder  under  the  influence  of  should 
and  icould ;  the  o  is  a  modern  insertion.  Shall  we  then  wrjte  cud  ?  Be- 
fore we  can  answer  we  must  decjde  on  the  scheme  of  sounds  which  we 
will  i[se.  All  corrections  should  bring  the  words  nearer  to  the  ideal 
alphabet.  There  are  a  few  words  in  which  we  can  not  go  wrong.  Such 
are  most  of  those  with  a  silent  e  after  a  syllable  with  a  short  vowel, 
give  (giv  ,  live  {liv);  and  of  those  in  which  ea  has  the  sound  of  short  e, 
dead(ded),  haul  [hed)\  hut  in  most  words  we  can  do  nothing  to  the  pur- 
pose till  we  have  settled  the  alphabet  which  shall  be  the  basis  of 
general  reform.  The  remedy  for  the  general  insufficiency  and  contra- 
riety of  our  notation  is  by  no  meaiM*  obvious  or  easy.  There  are  tliree 
general  methods  of  cirre,  each  of  which  has  its  show  of  reason  and  its 
able  advocates. 

NEW    SIGNS. 

The  first  is  the  invention  and  adoption  of  a  new  set  of  alphabetic 
sjgiis,  which  shall  have  forms  better  suited  to  rapid  and  legible  writ- 
ing than  the  Roman  characters,  and  have  scientific  analogies  with  the 
sounds  which  they  represent.  It  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  easy  to  im- 
prove upon  the  Roman  alphabet  in  these  respects.  Any  one  who 
has  seen  the  alphabet  of  Mr.  Pitman's  stenography,  or  that  of  Bishop 
Wilkins.  or  of  Mr.  Bell,  will  be  at  no  loss  for  suggestions.  It 
would  be  a  greet  thing,  certainly,  if  we  could  have  in  English  a 
system  adapted  to  all  possibilities  of  vocal  utterance,  with  scientific 
simplicity  and  legibility  such  as  to  make  it  finally  the  alphabet  of 
the  world.  For  my  part,  I  do  not  regard  it  as  a  wild  vision  to  imag- 
ine such  an  alphabet  in  the  fqtuje.  But  it  is  obvious  that  any  such 
system  must  win  its  way  very  slowly,  first  into  co-ordinate  i|se  with 
the  Roman  alphabet,  and  after  a  struggle  of  many  generations,  to  its 
displacement;  so  that  the  improvement  of  our  present  alphabet  is  still 
to  be  desp-ed  whjle  it  lasts.     As  to  the  direction  in  which  we  are  to 


IO 

look  for  the  coming  conqueror,  it  may  be  worth  remarking,  that  it 
seems  not  unlikely  that  printing  by  hand-machines  may  take  the  place 
of  wilting  to  a  great  extent,  and  make  rapidity  quite  secondary  to  leg- 
ibility. If  the  press  had  not  been  invented,  and  books,  and  magazines, 
and  newspapers  had  to  be  prepared  by  penmen  for  all  the  readers  of 
the  present  day,  Pitman's  stenography,  or  something  ljke  it,  would 
have  long  since  displaced  the  Roman  letters;  the  hand-machine  for 
printing  may  open  the  way  for  an  alphabet  ljke  Bell's,  of  complex 
signs  with  large  significance. 

OUR    LETTERS    WITH    ROMAN    VALUES. 

The  Roman  alphabet  is  so  widely  and  firmly  established  among 
the  leading  civilized  nations  that  it  can  not  be  soon  displaced.     In 
adapting  it  to  improved  qse  in  English,  and  in  supplementing  it,  two 
plans  may  be  followed.     One  is  to  hold  the  Roman  values  of  the  let- 
ters as  nearly  as  they  are  found  in  English,  and  supplement  by  the  in- 
vention of  new  characters,  and  the  qse  of  diacritical  marks.     This  is 
the  system  which  scholars  generally  qse  when  they  wish  to  represent 
in  wrjting  the  true  sounds  of  English  words,  and  it  brings  us  inter  ac- 
cord with  other  nations.     It  gives  the  following  alphabet.     The  letters 
which  have  their  Roman  sound,  or  nearly  that,  in  familiar  qse,and  so 
retain  it,  are  a  (far),  e  (let),  i  (pit),o  {note),u  (bull),  b,  c  (k),d,  f,  g  (go), 
h,  /,  in,  n,  p,  r,  s  (so),  t.     We  now  distinguish  between  the  vowel  and 
consonant  sounds  of  the  Roman  i  and  u,  qsing  y  and  w  for  the  conso- 
nant sounds:  j  andr,  old  variations  of  /and  u,  were  at  first  qsed  with 
this  power  in  English,  as  they  still  are  in  many  languages,  but  since 
the  NoTinan  mixture  they  have  acquired  other  sounds,  and  y  and  ware 
too  firmly  established  to  be  easily  shaken.     We  have  also  come  to  dis- 
tinguish  the  surd  from  the  sonant  utterance  of  s,  the  sonant  now  being 
denoted  by  2,  or  a  reversed  s,  so  that  we  must  add  to  the  Roman  con- 
sonants, v,  w,  y,  z.  (a).    There  ore  three  new  short  vowela  which  need 
sjgna,  those  in  fat,  not,  but.     For  theae  the  sign-:  most  eaay  to  intro- 
duce are  easily  recognized  variations  of  a,  0,  u,  such  aa,  for  example, 
a.  er,  u.     It  ba-i  been  heretofore  found  best  in  languages  written  in 
Roman  letters  to  qse  the  same  sign  fur  a  short  vowel  and  its  long,  ad- 
ding  ((  diacritical  mark  where  great  precision  is  needed.     This  course 
would  probably  be  acceptable  in  English  with  the  sounds  of  a  (past 
far  .a  [fat  fare),  0  (obey  note),  u  (bull  rude),  &  (not  nor),  u  (but, burn). 
There   ia  doubt  about  e  (let  late)  and  i  (pick  pique);  variations  of  e, 
Looking  like  a  err  a,  such  as,  for  example,  a,  and  of  i  looking  ljke  e,  e 
have  good  promise.       For  diphthongs  there  ore  ai  (by),  au  (house), 
oi  (noise  ,  iu  (music.)     It  seema  to  be  necessary  almost  for  us  to  qae  at 
first  for  ai  some  variation  of  i,  such  as,  for  example,  j:  and  for  iu 
some  variation  of  u,  such  aa,  for  example,  q.     Nor  is  the  permanent 


II 

qse  of  a  simple  character  for  these  glides  to  be  deplored,  if  poljte  pro- 
nunciation is  to  be  represented.  Finally  there  are  the  consonants  th, 
dh,  (thin  thnie),  sh,  zh,  (sugar  pleasure),  ng  (sing),  and  the  combina- 
tion;-! tsh  (church),  dzh  (judge),  which  await  their  signs  in  the  perfect 
alphabet.  The  surd  and  sonant  th  had  their  simple  sign*  in  Anglo- 
Saxon,  which  scholars  would  ljke  to  revive.  The  old  long  s  has  been 
qsed  a  good  deal  for  sh  by  scherlura  in  Germany.  The  italic  g  g  offers  a 
good  transition  f<  rrm  for  g,  when  it  has  the  sound  of  dzh ;  and  many  other 
character  have  been  suggested  for  all  these  sounds  by  our  modern 
inventors,  none  of  them  quite  satisfactory,  or  giving  promise  of  easy 
introduction.  But  we  need  not  fear.  The  digraphs  with  h  are  not  so 
very  bad,  and  the  single  signs  will  be  forthcoming  in  dqe  time. 

In  behalf  of  this  system  it  may  be  said,  that  it  will  be  easiest  to 
read  for  all  who  read  French,  German,  Latin,  Greek,  or  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  will  have  all  learned  associations  in  its  favor.  It  will  be  easiest 
for  children  and  the  illiterate  to  learn.  It  will  make  the  learning  of 
foreign  tongues  easy.  It  will  settle  the  school  pronunciation  of  Latin 
and  Greek.  We  shall  pronounce,  of  course,  as  the  Komans  did;  for 
that  will  be  our  natqral  reading  of  the  letters.  ISTo  one  will  think  of 
studying  up  a  pronunciation  so  remote  and  difficult  as  our  English 
method  will  then  become,  or  of  making  a  lingua  Franca  of  good  old 
Latin,  after  the  manner  of  the  so-called  continental  method.  It  will 
revive  the  speech  of  our  classic  old  English  authors.  As  we  now 
read  Hamlet  and  the  Canterbury  Tales,  Shakespeare  would  understand 
them  with  difficulty,  Chaucer  hardly  at  all.  Chaucer  tells  us  what 
pains  he  took  with  his  spelling: 

"  So  oft  aday  I  mot  thy  werke  renewe, 
It  to  correct,  and  eke  to  rubbe  and  scrape." 
He  saj^s  further : 

"  So  preye  I  God  that  non  myswrite  the, 
]STe  the  mysmetere  for  defaute  of  tongue." 

The  old  manuscripts  are  carefully  printed  for  us ;  we  have  onlv 
to  pronounce  correctly  and  we  shall  hear  the  music  of  the  masters. 

That  this  reform  of  our  spelling  will  be  no  hindrance  to  etymol- 
ogical studies  need  hardly  be  mentioned,  it  has  been  so  often  explain- 
ed by  our  great  philologists.  We  have  the  records  preserved  of  all 
the  old  forms  of  spelling,  and  scholars  like  nothing  better  than  to 
search  them  out,  and  give  them  to  the  public,  who  may  find  them  in 
their  dictionaries.  It  Avill  however  make  it  harder  for  foreigners  little 
versed  in  etymology,  to  recognize  English  words  akin  to  their  own, 
or  to  the  other  foreign  tongues.  It  is  thought  that  it  will  be  hard  to 
introduce  this  scheme;  that  the  printers  can  not  qse  it  for  want  of 
types,  and  that  no  one  can  read  it  without  study.  These  objections 
have  force  against  the  sudden  qse  of  the  whole  scheme,  but  may  be 


12 

met  by  its  gradqal  introduction  and  by  temporary  expedients.  Three 
lnies  of  movement  (ire  needed,  one  to  render  the  new  types  familiar 
to  the  public,  a  second  to  earn  out  a  system  of  uniform  ijse  of  all  the 
letters,  a  third  to  drop  sjlent  letters.  Something  may  be  done  in  each 
lnie  at  once,  but  the  first  natqrally  leads  the  way.  The  new  letters 
may  be  substituted  for  the  old  ones  which  they  resemble,  when  the  old 
ones  have  the  intended  sound,  without  embarrassing  any  reader;  and 
when  the  new  letters  have  become  familiar,  they  can  be  gradually 
U^ed  wherever  their  sound  occurs.  Printers  who  have  not  the  new 
types,  can  use  the  old  ones  of  which  they  are  variation*,  adding  a  dot  : 
a-  for  a,  o*  for  o,  a*  for  u,  and  the  ljke.  Every  one  of  these  distinc- 
tions, accurately  made,  is  clear  gain,  however  it  may  be  expressed  by 
types. 

REFORM    ACCORDING    TO    ENGLISH    ANALOGIES. 

The  other  system  is  to  follow  the  analogies  of  the  present  English 
spelling,  to  give  each  of  our  single  letters  the  value  which  it  has  eften- 
est,  and  to  supplement  with  those  digraphs  which  now  most  common- 
ly represent  the  sounds  which  would  have  no  single  letter  to  repre- 
sent them. 

Two  powerful  reasons  maybe  urged  for  a  trial  of  this  method. 

1.  It  can  be  easily  read  by  every  one  who  can  read  in  the  present 
spelling. 

2.  It  can  be  printed  with  common  types. 

It  may  be  further  said,  that  it  is  in  the  ljne  of  the  regular  develop- 
ment of  our  Language.  It  is  the  tendency  everywhere  in  language  for 
minoritiea  to  conform  to  majorities.  The  unusual  modes  of  spelling 
would  naturally,  according  to  this  law,  give  way  to  the  most  common 
mode,  and  this  would  ultimately  be  the  only  mode  of  denoting  each 
sound.  So  that  in  adopting  this  system  we  should  only  be  hastening 
the  natural  process  by  which  cosmos  comes  out  of  chaos;  and  this, 
our  scientific  men  say,  is  the  true  office  of  the  reformer. 

Many  of  the  objections  to  this  scheme  would  be  removed  by  re- 
garding digraphs  which  represent  elementary  sounds,  as  single  charac- 
ters, and  naming  them  a.s  such  by  their  elementary  sound  without  mak- 
ing mention  oi  the  separate  letters.  They  should  be  castas  one  type. 
Then  the  type  founders  would  soon  invent  shapely  abbreviations,  which 
would  be  good  enough  signs,  and  record  some  English  history  to  boot. 
In  redqeing  the  scheme  to  practice  difficulties  arise.  The  qses  of  our 
letters  ore  so  various  thai  the  conflict  of  qval  claims  among  the  dj- 
graphs  s  hard  to  decide,  and,  however  it  be  decided,  the  aspect  of 
large  numbers  of  words  is  so  completely  changed  that  easy  reading  is 
out  of  the  question.  Then  this  Iqnd  of  spelling  is  associated  in  many 
minds  with  buffoonery,  vulgarity  and  illiteracy.    It  exejtes  odium,  rid- 


x3 

icqle  and  violent  opposition.  In  spjte  of  all  this,  there  ai-e  many 
persons  to  whom  it  is  more  acceptable  than  any  other  scheme.  It  ha? 
been  carefully  labored  by  Mr.  Ellis,  Mr.  Jones,  and  others,  and  the 
use  of  it  may  obviously  contribute  to  genuine  reform  in  the  present 
stage  of  the  movement. 

PEACTICAL   MEASURES. 

!No  eaniest  comprehensive  effort  has  yet  been  made  to  ascertain 
and  harmonize  the  views  of  those  interested  in  this  reform.  Commit- 
tees of  the  English  and  the  American  Philological  Association  would  be 
now  in  a  position  to  attempt  it,  and  probably  the  attempt  wiL  be  made 
during  the  coming  year.  If  the  assent  of  a  few  of  the  most  eminent 
representatives  of  scholarship  can  be  combined  with  that  of  the  lead- 
ing practical  workers,  an  indefinite  number  of  subscription-'  of  assent 
from  others  can  easily  be  obtained.  It  would  be  too  much  to  hope 
that  any  complete  system  can  at  once  be  agreed  upon :  but  it  seem* 
almost  certain  that  some  important  particulars  may  be,  since  the  re- 
port of  the  Co-mmittee  of  the  American  Philological  Association  was 
not  only  made  qnanimously  and  adopted  without  opposition,  but  is 
apparently  cordially  assented  to  everywhere,  even  by  those  who  have 
been  looked  to  as  champion?,  of  our  present  spelling.  This  report 
contains  the  following  propositions : 

u  The  jdeal  of  an  alphabet  is  that  every  sound  should  have  its  own 
unvarying  sjgn  and  every  isjgn  its  own  unvarying  sound." 

"The  Roman  alphabet  is  so  widely  and  so  firmly  established  in 
qse  among  the  leading  civilized  nations  that  it  can  not  be  displaced ; 
in  adapting  it  to  improved  qse  for  English,  the  efforts  of  scholars 
should  be  directed  towards  its  qse  with  qniformity  and  in  conformity 
with  other  nations."  It  can  not  sqrely  be  impossible  to  take  a  first 
step  in  the  course  thus  distinctly  marked  out. 

AX    ASSOCIATION    OF    REFORMERS. 

But  even  before  any  agreement  on  schemes  of  reform,  a  national 
or  international  association  of  those  interested  in  the  matter  may  be 
formed.  A  nqcleus  of  permanent  workers  might  accomplish  much  by 
collecting  the  names  of  a  large  number  of  members,  organizing  sub- 
ordinate societies,  urging  the  reform  by  lectqres,  through  the  press,  by 
private  correspondence,  and  in  many  other  ways. 

LEARNED    SOCIETIES. 

Many  learned  societies  may  with  propriety  aid  by  passing  resolq- 
tions  in  favor  of  reformed  spelling,  and  by  introdqcing  it  into  then- 
Transactions.     The   Philological    Society   of  Loudon,   the  American 


Philological  Association,  National  and  State  Teachera  Associations, 
the  Associationa  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  Great  Britain 
and  America,  and  other  similar  bodiea,  may  be  looked  to  with  hope. 
Both  the  Philological  Soqetiea  have  had  the  matter  before  them;  the 
American  ha?  appointed  and  continued  from  year  to  year  a  committee 
representing  our  great  qniversitiba  and  our  best  scholarship — whose 
ri  port  for  the  lust  year  baa  already  been  mentioned;  the  London  So- 
ciety allows  a  certain  latitude  to  its  membera  in  the  spelling  of  their 
papera  in  their  transactiona.  National  and  State  Teachers  Associa- 
tiona have  also  appointed  Committeea  to  investigate  and  report,  and 
to  co-operate  with  the  Philological  Association. 

GOVERNMENT    ACTION. 

The  Legislatqrea  of  our  States,  of  the  Unjted  States,  and  of  Great 
Britain  may  introduce  the  new  spelling  into  public  documents.  A  con- 
siderable number  of  documents  published  by  the  United  States  con- 
tain linguistic  material  connected  with  the  aborigines,  which  ought  to 
be  printed  in  uniform  phonetic  spelling  to  be  eaaily  qaed  by  scholars. 
The  legislature  of  the  conservative  old  State  of  Connecticut  has  the 
honor  of  leading  the  way.  The  following  joint  reaolirtion  passed  both 
their  housea  without  dissent. 

"  Resolved  by  this  Assembly  :  That  the  Governor  be,  and  he  hereby 
i/  authorized  to  appoint  a  Commission,  consisting  of  six  competent 
persons,  who  shall  examine  as  to  the  propriety  of  adopting  an  amend- 
ed orthography  of  the  public  documents  hereafter  to  he  printed,  and 
how  far  such  amended  orthography  may  with  propriety  be  adopted, 
and  report  thereupon  to  the  next  session  of  the  General  Assembly. 
That  such  Commission  shall  receive  no  compensation  for  its  services. 
Approved  duly  20th,  lsT;").'1 

The  Governor  appointed  Senator  W.  W.  Fowler,  by  whom  the 
Eteaolution  was  offered,  Professora  Whitney  and  Trumbull  of  Yale 
College,  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Edqcation,  Hon.  B.  G. 
Northrup,  Professora  Hart  of  Trinity  College  and  Van  Benshoten  of 
Wesleyan  University,  a  Commission  of  which  any  State  might  he 
proud.  This  ( lommission  has  been  continued  by  the  legislature  in  the 
hope  that  concurrent  action  may  be  taken  by  other  States.  The  two 
houaea  of  the  Pennsylvania  legislature  were  passinga  similar  joint  rea- 
olqtion  without  dissent,  when  some  one  noticed  that  under  the  new 
constitution  it  must  have  the  form  of  a  bill.  This  preliminary  action 
has  bei  n  of  great  importance  in  awakening  interest  aud  gathering  up 
a  certain  authority  for  the  movement.  The  actual  i[se  of  improved 
spelling  in  such  documents  and  transactions  would  give  it  authority 
without  kindling  popqlar  hostility. 


'5 


PREEDMEN;S    AID    AXD    BIBLE   SOCIETIES. 

An  appeal  may  be  made  with  much  reason  to  all  associations 
which  are  formed  to  support  our  free  institution*  and  to  promote  Chris- 
tianity, such  a*  the  freedmen'a  aid  socjetiea,  the  home  missionary  and 
the  Bjhle  societies.  The  freedmen  will  not  learn  the  present  spelling. 
The  missionaries  among- the  pagan  perpqlationa  in  California  and  else- 
where cannert  qse  the  press  to  reach  them.  We  print  Bj'hlcs  and  other 
good  books  in  strange  djalects  in  the  hope  of  reaching  a  few  thousand 
Asiatics  or  Africans.  An  English  Bjble  in  reformed  orthography  may 
well  reach  millions  in  a  single  generation  who  otherwise  would  never 
read  it. 

PUBLISHERS. 

Publishers  must  be  brerughl  to  take  an  interest  in  the  reform. 
Some  will  doubtless  do  so  from  pure  benevolence  and  love  erf  progress; 
but  they  ought  also  to  have  money  in  it.  There  ore  wrjters  among  us, 
scholars  and  perpqlar  authorz,  who-  may  insist  on  qsing  in  their  own 
publications  more  or  less  of  reformed  spelling.  A  single  new  letter 
is  worth  introducing,  or  a  single  reformed  word.  Many  newspapers 
and  periodicals  could  be  easily  opened  in  this  way.  Several  papers 
are  now  printed  in  a  reformed  alphabet,  and  they  may  be  encouraged. 
Merchants  and  other  advertisers  may  insist  on  printing  their  business 
advertisements  and  circqlars  in  the  same  manner.  Dictionaries  must  be 
made,  and  other  standard  works  of  reference  in  which  publishers  will 
invest.  Is  it  not  possible  that  the  publishers  of  primers  and  spellers 
ma}-  adapt  a  uniform  statement  of  our  alphabetic  sounds,  and  change 
the  names  of  the  letters  to  the  sounds  which  they  oftenest  represent. 
That  would  be  great  sain,  worth  holding  a  convention  for. 

TEACHERS. 

Teachers  are  our  best  hope.  Thay  need  the  reform  most.  Thay 
understand  jt  best.  Thay  must  teach  it  to  the  generation  who  are  to 
qse  it.  The  way  should  be  made  easy  for  them.  Primers,  spellers, 
readers,  and  all  other  school-books,  and  other  printed  apparatus  of  the 
best  kjnd  should  be  furnished  in  reformed  spelling.  It  may  be  made  a 
matter  of  discussion  and  instruction  in  their  institutes  and  conven- 
tions, and  in  their  printed  periodicals.  The  superintendents  will  lead 
the  van.     Win  the  schoolroom  and  the  cause  is  w^on. 

RAPID    PROGRESS. 

Want  of  faith  and  want  of  concert  are  the  greatest  obstacles  to 
rapid  progress.  Scholars,  especially,  think  how  slow  changes  in  lan- 
guage have  been,  and  how   little  influence  the  learned  class  have  ex- 


i6 

cited  upon  them;  they  sleep  in  the  field?  of  G^ant  Despair.  But  year 
by  year  the  power  ef  reason  increase?  in  every  form  of  activity,  as  year 
by  year  the  mean?  increase  erf  collecting  and  concentrating  the  assent 
of  thinking  persona.  What  with  our  railroads  and  telegraphs  and 
newspapers,  and  our  socjetie?  and  associations,  with  their  meeting?  and 
conventions,  it  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that  a  wjder  and  more 
powerful  concentration  of  opinion  can  now  be  effected  in  a  single  sum- 
mer than  would  have  been  possible  in  a  hundred  years  three  centuries 
ago.  Changes  of  pronunciation,  general  changes  of  spoken  language, 
depend  in  great  part  on  little  known  causes  which  work  upon  whole 
net  ion?  through  their  physical  organization,  and  which  we  may  well 
despair  of  controlling  ;  but  orthography  i?  independent  machinery  over 
which  the  consent  of  reason  has  full  control.  Several  modern  lan- 
guages have  had  their  spelling  reformed  by  the  influence  of  learned 
academies,  or  by  government;  and  sqrely  no  language  needs  reform 
more  than  our?,  and  no  race  are  more  ready  reformer?. 


i  l 


**«* 


- 


OFFICERS 

OF    THE 

SPELLING  REFORM  ASSOCIATION 


PRESIDENT. 

Pbof.  F.  A.  MARCH.  Lafayette  College,  Easton,  Pa. 
VICE    PRESIDENTS. 

Pbof.  S.  S.  HALDEMAN,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Chickies,  Pa. 

E.  JONES,  35  Newstead  Road,  Liverpool". 

Hon.  W.  T.  HARRIS,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Prof.  W.  1>.  Whitney,  Vale  Colli'-.'.  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Pbof.  C.  K.  NELSON,  St.  John's  College,  Annapolis,  Md. 

Miss.  E.  B.  BURNS,  33  Park  Row,  New  York. 

BECOKDINO    SECBETABY, 

MELVIL  DEWEY,  13  Treniont  Place,  Boston,  .Mass. 

CORRESPONDING    SECBETABY    AND    TREASCRER. 

D.  1'.  LINDSLEY,  Fernwnod,  Pa. 


m 


Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


£8  Vtok 

oct  x  e  w« 

APR  l  7 1957 


Form  L9-_:5m-9,'47(A5618)444 


k 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


L  006913  328  I 


AA    000  353  989    7 


